Caroline Ardelia Yale (September 29, 1848 – July 2, 1933[1]) was an American inventor and educator who revolutionized the teaching of hearing-impaired students.

Her father was deacon of the Congregational Church and helped establish Williston Academy, while her paternal grandfather, Lyman Yale, was a captain during the War of 1812, alongside his cousin major general Hezekiah Barnes, son of Lois Yale; her maternal grandfather was a doctor.

[15][16][5] His daughter, June Yale, also became a friend of Grace and was later hired as a teacher at Clarke School for the Deaf.

[2][3] In 1882 she began to collaborate with another teacher to develop a more comprehensive system of phonetic symbols than Alexander Melville Bell's "Visible Speech".

[2] After retiring she continued to direct the teacher training program and remained active with the Clarke School for many years.

They raised 2 million dollars which were given to Caroline Ardelia, who was stuck in a wheelchair as the school's retired principal in her late years.

[24] The major donors were William Boyce Thompson, E. P. Charlton, partner of Seymour H. Knox I, a cousin of Frank W. Woolworth of the Woolworth Tower, Henry Latham Doherty, Fred Morgan Kirby, the VP of F. W. Woolworth & Co., Andrew Mellon, the US Treasury Secretary, Cyrus H. K. Curtis of the Curtis Publishing Company, Edward Harkness, Standard Oil heir, William A. Paine of Paine Webber, which became UBS, Frank Philipps of Phillips Petroleum Company, and John J. Raskob, builder of the Empire State Building.

[24] Caroline Ardelia received honorary doctorate degrees from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1896 and Mount Holyoke College in 1927.